Local Voices
Like the land, air, water, and history that unite our special region, we too are united as one community against the Horse Creek Wind Project.
Michael Ringer
Painter and Sculptor
Local Business Owner "If an industrial turbine factory is erected, (covering 10,000 acres) anywhere near our magnificently beautiful St. Lawrence River, the negative impact will be devastating. It will leave our forests, fields and rolling hills disfigured and grotesque, in a virtually irreversible way.
People’s homes, health, property values, local businesses, and the tourism that we all depend on will be injured. All because a company, (not even American) claims they want to “save the world,” while they pocket hundreds of millions of dollars. This money will be at the expensive of, and on the backs of, our friends and neighbors. Turbine Industrialists persist for one single reason, money. I wish I was being melodramatic when I say the people living in the St. Lawrence River Valley, are incidental to them. Promoters admonish us at town meetings as irresponsible, “cut back on CO2 emissions, it’s your responsibility!” Overstating their position, they claim their monstrous sized turbines don’t give off CO2. They omit any mention of the enormous amounts expelled during the manufacture of: 200 ft.+ towers, 100 ft.+ composite blades, huge mechanical generators, hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel for freighters, tractor trailer transport, dump trucks, enormous cranes, backhoes, and earth movers to construct them over, years of time. Nearly a million pounds of concrete (the highest source of CO2 emissions in the construction industry) in each base. It goes on, and on. Wind turbines are inefficient at producing consistent, reliable energy. Often no energy is produced at all, due to no wind, high wind, ice storms, and maintenance. The little energy they do make is the by far the highest priced of all energy forms. On average, industrial wind turbines produce less than 30% of what they claim because wind conditions are rarely perfect. NYS conditions are worse, estimated in the low 20‘s! If it was not for substantial federal subsidies they simply would not exist. Adding insult to injury, we help pay those subsidies with our tax dollars." 
"While TILT supports the development and expansion of renewable energies, TILT opposes the Horse Creek Wind Farm being proposed by Avangrid Renewables and any/all siting of utility-scale wind energy generation facilities within the viewshed of the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries.
The Thousand Islands Land Trust Board of Trustees recognizes that this letter does not take into consideration other impacts that the proposed Horse Creek Wind Farm would present. Additional areas of impact include, but are not limited to, human health, visual aesthetics, river navigation, property values, land use, military operations, tourism, and local economies." 
Cindy
Farmer and Mother
Town of Clayton "We respect and value our farm land. My son is the 4th generation to live on this land. We are very concerned that the industrial wind turbines could affect the health and safety of people and farm animals.
We also depend on our wells, our springs and ponds for water for our homes and for our farm animals. The process to excavate the ground to put in the massive concrete bases to hold up 500' to 600' tall industrial wind turbines could ruin our water sources. This is a known karst geology area. Water is vital and precious. Industrial wind turbines do not belong near people or animals. This area is already too heavily populated for this kind of industrial project, including 27 local Amish families." 
Louise "Weezie" Ford
In memoriam (1954-2018) Lifelong Summer Resident, Property Owner and River Rat
Grindstone Island, Town of Clayton "In 2009 I arrived on my point on Grindstone Island coming from around the north shore and along the Canadian Border to be greeted by a view of what looked like a 100 wind turbines on Wolfe Island. I had never heard one word about them being constructed and was shocked to see them. Not just because they are very visible in the daylight even though the closest one to me is over 10 miles away, but the night sky is wash with red and white flashing lights. If you are coming down the Canadian Middle Channel from the Punts or Jolly Island heading towards Kingston, it is absolutely impossible to pick out the red flashing channel markers from the wind turbine lights.
If I am out on the end of my point the sky is filled with something that looks to be akin to JFK's runways! Our bat population has plummeted since the wind turbines went up and other wild life I know are in the flight path. The 1000 Islands is a place of such amazing natural beauty to have these horrible monstrosities built on the horizon ... both near and far is a crime. If the new wind farm is only going to be 5 miles from the River then any view towards the US Mainland will be blotted forever by these monstrosities. The value of the Islands will not only be totally diminished financially but also environmentally." 
Gerry Smith
Senior North Country Ornithologist
"Energy from Industrial wind is renewable but not "green". The ecological impacts of bird and bat mortality, habitat fragmentation and conversion of quiet rural landscapes to lighted and noisy industrial zones are all serious concerns.
Horse Creek would damage some of our best remaining grassland bird habitat and threaten endangered bats. The site of the proposed project would damage the natural environment far more than any power generation would help global climate change." |
Leona In memoriam (1932-2019) and Jasper Wilkie
65 Year Residents of Depauville
Town of Clayton "We have lived in the Hamlet of Depauville for over 65 years. We are very concerned about the health, the safety and welfare of the people of Depauville and the surrounding area if the industrial wind turbines are built here.
This area is too populated to install industrial wind turbines here." 
Photo: Ian Coristine © All rights reserved
Anne McDonald
Thousand Island Park Resident
Town of Orleans "Thousand Island Park, Wellesley Island’s charming Victorian-era summer community founded in 1876, is a major tourist attraction and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
If industrial wind turbines are built in Clayton and Orleans, I am very concerned that they will destroy the Thousand Islands viewshed. I worry fewer tourists would visit. Turbines would likely lower property values, hurting local communities whose tax revenues are largely dependent upon riverfront and island properties, which are highly-valued for their incredible river vistas and unspoiled natural beauty." 
Hope Marshall
Iroquois Descendant
Town of Clayton "The time for encroachment on indigenous lands is not a memory from the past or an action far on the West Coast.
The Horse Creek Wind Project will trespass on sacred burial sites and ceremonial landscapes. We often cry and protest illegal activity at a distance. The time is now to do something on our homelands. Oppose the construction of the Horse Creek Wind Project. Keep this land sacred, our burials undisturbed and our water free from the threat of contamination." Save the River
“Eagerness either for profits or quick solutions to the uncertainty of carbon-induced climate change cannot replace science or the development of sound environmental solutions that are protective of the ecosystem as a whole. Since 2010 Save The River has called for a moratorium on industrial wind projects in the environmentally significant and sensitive area that is the St. Lawrence River valley until accumulative environmental assessment of the impacts of such projects has been conducted. In 2013 we objected to an industrial wind project proceeding to the application phase of the Article 10 process for the same reason. As recently as April, we reiterated this position.
…The Fish and Wildlife Service report only makes it more imperative that no projects be permitted here until a comprehensive region-wide, cross-border assessment of their cumulative environmental impacts has been conducted." 
Jack Woodward
Lieutenant General, United States Air Force (Retired)
Wellesley Island, Town of Orleans "As a retired Lt. General, senior executive with Accenture, Jefferson County native and Wellesley Island resident, I see no added value with Horse Creek. Our tourist economy does not fit with wind turbines strewn across our pristine horizon.
There is no monetary return to citizens or businesses: only potential problems, such as water quality, health and noise concerns, bird deaths, environmental damage, infrastructure wear and decreased property values. I'm also concerned about national security. Wind turbines can interfere with radar, possibly affecting Fort Drum flight operations and capabilities." 
Ken Knapp
Curator, the Knapp Collection
1000 Islands Native American Archeology Archive Local Authority on Pre-Contact Archaeology Town of Clayton "This project would have devastating and permanent impacts to the economy and environment of the 1000 Islands region. The ramifications of this development and its impacts would affect this entire region to magnitudes not seen since the Seaway development.
The danger to the environment and landscape is as real as any issue we have ever faced. Whether it is our environment, economy or culture, all these elements of life in the 1000 Islands region will suffer irreparable harm should this development happen. The Town of Clayton’s guiding document, the 2017 Comprehensive Plan, is the New York State-recognized expression of the will of the people, regarding land-use and zoning in the Town. This document is not supportive of this project, and indeed this project would conflict with many aspects of that Plan. That being the situation, for the developer to now force this upon our Town and region, is clearly a case of economic, environmental and cultural Eminent Domain, make no mistake, this is a hostile take over of the 1000 Islands region and our way of life." |
Business and Organizations Opposed to Horse Creek
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